Haima Therapeutics Announces the Appointments of Dr. Matthew Neal as Chief Medical Officer and Dr. Stephen Flaim as Board Member
March 27, 2023 – Haima Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing synthetic, cell-inspired therapies targeting multiple medical conditions. Haima’s initial clinical program mimics the biology of platelets to mitigate bleeding. Haima announced today the appointment of Matthew Neal, MD FACS as Chief Medical Officer and Stephen Flaim, PhD FACC FAHA as Board Member.
Dr. Neal is a world-renowned trauma and general surgeon and key opinion leader in hemostasis and thrombosis following injury. He is the Vice Chair for Academic Training and the Roberta G. Simmons Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and the Co-Director of the Pittsburgh Trauma and Transfusion Medicine Research Center. He is the Director of Emergency General Surgery for UPMC Presbyterian hospital. Dr. Neal also leads an active basic and translational science research group funded by the NIH and DoD and focusing on understanding the mechanisms of hemostasis, inflammation, and thrombosis following trauma and hemorrhagic shock. He is a seasoned clinical trialist serving as PI or Co-I for 10 clinical trials in the past decade focusing on surgical outcomes in trauma, transfusion medicine, and emergency general surgery.
“It is a pleasure to join Haima’s team as its Chief Medical Officer (CMO). I have been collaborating with and advising the inventors of the SynthoPlate technology for several years now and recognize its potential clinical impact” Dr. Neal said. “I have dedicated my career to the evaluation and development of hemostatic treatments following injury and look forward to bringing my capabilities to the Haima leadership team for their upcoming clinical trials.”
“Bringing Dr. Neal onto the team really sets this company up for success and shows it’s ready to bring their platelet-inspired hemostatic technologies into the clinic.” said Dr. Tim Pelura, Haima’s Executive Chair.
“I am excited to see the transition of Dr. Neal from an active advisor/collaborator to our executive management team. His experience and expertise will be critical to support the clinical development of our technologies into the clinic to demonstrate their safety and hemostatic activity.” said Dr. Michael Bruckman, Haima’s CEO. “I am always impressed by Dr. Neal’s passion and poise for treating patients and entrepreneurial spirit for new product development. His presence and leadership is going to be an excellent addition to our executive team.”
Haima has also recruited Dr. Stephen Flaim as an independent Member of the Board of Managers. Dr. Flaim brings over 40 years’ experience in pharmaceutical research and development and entrepreneurship. As Senior Special Advisor and Investor-in-Residence at the National Institute of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NIH-NHLBI), he advises dozens of NIH grant-funded companies on securing investor funds. He is an active Angel investor and has supported several companies as they secured early seed and Series A stage financing. Furthermore, Dr. Flaim brings a technical background in the clinical translation of blood surrogate products from his days as Vice President of Biological Sciences at Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp.
“I am excited to join this ambitious team on their Board and to help them succeed on their mission to raise funds to translate their blood surrogate technologies into the clinic. This therapeutic space is close to my heart, and I hope to use my experience in drug development, business, and fundraising to help the team avoid any significant potholes in their growth.” Said Dr. Flaim.
“Having worked with Stephen back in my Alliance days, I know the technical and strategic value he can bring to this hard working team.” said Dr. Pelura.
“Bringing Dr. Flaim onto the Board adds additional drug development and financing experience needed as we seek to bridge the “valley of death” that so many startups experience.” Said Dr. Bruckman.
About Matthew Neal
Dr. Neal is the Vice Chair of Surgery for Academic Training and the Roberta G. Simmons Associate Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the Director of Emergency General Surgery and an attending surgeon in the Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at UPMC. He holds secondary appointments in the Departments of Critical Care Medicine, the Vascular Medicine Institute (VMI), and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). Dr. Neal runs a translational research program focused on hemostasis and thrombosis following injury, and his basic science laboratory is funded by multiple awards from the NIH as well as the Department of Defense. He is PI or Co-I on several ongoing clinical trials in trauma and surgical pre-habilitation, and he serves as the Co-Director of the Pittsburgh Trauma and Transfusion Medicine Research Center. He presently serves as a co-lead for the coordinating center for the NIH ACTIV-4 program addressing clinical trials in anti-thrombotics in COVD-19, and he co-chairs the ACTIV-4a clinical platform. Dr. Neal has over 170 peer reviewed articles on trauma, hemostasis, thrombosis, and transfusion medicine.
About Stephen Flaim
Dr. Flaim has a PhD in Human Physiology and Pharmacology from UC Davis and is a rare PhD Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Flaim was the VP of Biological Sciences at Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp., a previous closed company that developed a blood substitute. He went on to executive roles at other companies including Trega Biosciences, Galileo Pharmaceuticals, CardioCreate, Inc., OncoFluor, Inc. and Leading Biosciences, Inc. Prior to Alliance, he worked for Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Following his work in small and startup companies, he became chairman of the Tech Coast Angels, a southern California-based group of individual investors and Director at the Angel Capital Association. Additionally, the NIH recruited Steve to be their Senior Special Advisor & Investor-in-Residence in the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute where he advises Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awardees on how raise money and to turn their federally funded research into products. Steve is also Entrepreneur-in-Residence with the Small Business Education and Entrepreneurial Development (SEED) Office at the NIH.
About Haima Therapeutics
Haima Therapeutics is a pre-clinical stage biopharma company developing cell-inspired therapies for the treatment of bleeding and a variety of blood-related diseases. Haima’s initial focus is on platelet-inspired therapies to mitigate active bleeding and bleeding risks after traumatic injury, surgery, and thrombocytopenia. Haima’s lead technology is called SynthoPlate, a novel, fully-synthetic hemostatic agent that mitigates bleeding by acting at the site of injury and amplifying your body’s natural clotting mechanisms. Haima is currently raising Series A funds, and interested investors should contact Michael Bruckman (CEO) at mbruckman@haimatherapeutics.com.
Learn more at www.haimatherapeutics.com, follow us on twitter @HaimaThr, or email us at info@haimatherapeutics.com